Women stop getting paid from Saturday for the rest of the year

Talking About Equal Pay Needs To Be Easier – So Weve Started A Service To Advise Women

After this date women are effectively working for free until the end of the year because of the gender pay gap.

Carrie Gracie, who quit as the BBCs China editor in protest over being paid less than her male peers, has funded a new service to help women in low paid jobs access the help they need to fight pay discrimination.

Carrie Gracie revealed yesterday that she was handed a £361,000 payout in her gender pay gap row with the BBC.

The presenter settled her equal pay case in June following a long, bitter battle with the Corporation.

She did not disclose the sum at the time but yesterday told how the figure was almost three times her original salary of £135,000 as China editor.

Miss Gracie donated the money to gender equality charity The Fawcett Society, which has used it to set up a free legal aid service for women to fight workplace discrimination.

Carrie Gracie who became a key figure within the BBC as the driving force behind initiating change at the corporation over gender and equal pay issues

The 56-year-old, who has spent more than 30 years at the Corporation, also said she is on unpaid leave but is going to go back to the BBC and be a presenter again.

She added: Some people said at the time theyre going to sack you, they didnt sack me so good on the BBC for that.

Her revelation comes after MPs found the BBC had discriminated against and underpaid scores of women because of an invidious and opaque culture at the top. In a Commons report last month, they said it had failed female workers and plunged the organisation into a crisis of trust.

They added that women at the broadcaster live in fear of challenging their employer despite knowing they are paid tens of thousands less than men who sit beside them.